Francesco Verso (Bologna, 1973) is a multiple-award Science Fiction writer and editor (3 Europe Awards, 2 Urania Awards, 2 Italy Awards, 1 Galaxy Award). He has published: e-Doll, Nexhuman, Bloodbusters and The Roamers. He also works as editor and publisher of Future Fiction, a multicultural project dedicated to publishing the best World SF in translation from 40 countries and 14 languages. He may be found at www.futurefiction.org.

Ecoceanic by Tarun K. Saint and Francesco Verso

Ecoceanic: Southern Flows encompasses writing from the coastal regions of Africa, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, extending to Australia and Latin America. The volume has given Science Fiction writers a space to reflect on past experiences of maritime trade, colonialism and imperialism. In these stories we find an attempt to extrapolate from such historical experiences into both the near and far future, envisaging ecocatastrophes facing such regions in the time of accelerated anthropogenic climate change, as well possible alternatives at the micro and macro levels, leading to the construction of distinctive storylines and variants of SF novum.

Ecoceanic thus envisages a form of Oceanic futurism from the South, taking inspiration from movements such as solarpunk that delineate both critiques and alternatives to the current unsustainable socio-economic systems that are taking a heavy toll of oceanic ecosystems and coastal culture.

CURATOR'S NOTE

The indefatigable Saint and Verso tackle climate change in this excellent new anthology! – Lavie Tidhar

 

REVIEWS

  • "This is a spectacular collection of stories from the Global South and the ocean covering most of our planet. Whenever technologies alter human societies at a rapidly accelerating pace, Science Fiction becomes the preferred mode of literature. This book is one sign of that great shift into visionary futurism deployed to reveal the utopian possibilities still alive in our present time. It's a delight to read."

    – Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Ministry for the Future

  • "This is a collection of thought-provoking climate-fiction stories, elegantly told and so real they can only be set in futures that have already happened"

    – Anil Menon, author of The Coincidence Plot

  • "A thrilling reminder that our planet's future will be shaped by the ocean and the cultures of the Southern hemisphere."

    – James Bradley, author of Ghost Species and Deep Water: The World in the Ocean
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Mare Tranquillitatis by Soham Guha

My father was like the banyan tree that became the center of the village. Each time my childhood visited me as murmuring memories – whether I was inside the overcrowded Delhi Metro or simply sipping my coffee and listening to the late-night symphony of the sprawling metropolis –it was the familiar muddy roads, the flooded fields, the numerous gray tributaries, and him. After my mother died during childbirth, he was the only one I knew and loved for most of my life.

Nevertheless, relationships, even those bound by blood, are like wandering stars. With time, as the world around me began to make sense as a kaleidoscope of egoism and avarice, we drifted apart. A gorge formed between us, deepening with each misunderstanding and unspoken word. With no one else to hold us together, we were supposed to be friends, if not the anchors of each other. But I fled, chasing a prospect like a moth flapping its thin wings towards an unconquerable moon.

For a brief, rejuvenating moment, the moon appeared closer.

The scholarship landed me on the campus of Kanpur IIT. In the place of my dreams, I knitted circuits and became a machine whisperer. My dissertation on deep learning put me in one of the leading robotics labs. There, while spending my long hours constructing an evolving language of a specialized set of drones, I met someone. He sported an untrimmed beard. He never wore cologne. His eyes reflected the depth of our oceans. He reminded me of so much of my father, more than I wished.

I gave my heart to Samir Nanda, thinking the world was just and caring. He was my lightning rod. We dreamed of having a small house in suburban Gurgaon, our child playing in the tiny backyard garden, dancing with the butterflies, smelling the newly bloomed Kamini. The problem was that there were neither any butterflies nor any flowers blossoming naturally. Excess use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers had turned paddy fields into muddy plains. Forests did not have undergrowth, even after the monsoon. In the absence of pollinators, our world was dying.

I had asked Samir, looking at the stars above us, sharing warmth under a blanket in a remote Himalayan village, "How can we save a planet?"

"By creating life," he replied with a radiant smile.

In the robotics lab of JaanTech, we pulled together our expertise on surveillance drones and machine language and created little harbingers of life – tiny pollinators of metal and carbon. But he did not want a healing world. He turned his gaze only to toppling slabs of money. He took my Samir away and turned my works into paradigms of silent atrocities.

In a withering world, we normalized propaganda to divert our minds from the alarming topics and put advertised items in our carts to sustain an inflated economy and an egocentric regime. We had the instruments, even proper funds, but lacked the will to act for our future. Those who did were either silenced or simply became ghosts, like me.